Earthlike Planets

Fenderman

Fenderman

Rooters Reporter
Latest reports of results from the Kepler telescope have added to the burgeoning number of planets being discovered in recent years.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-16040655

The question "Are we alone?" has bugged peep's-kind for almost as long as peep's have existed on Planet Earth. So, just how many Clip members are sceptical about the existence of life on other planets? Does it matter to you? Does it bother you?

The subject has always fascinated me and although I'm a sceptic as far as alien visitation is concerned I can't help feeling that it is somewhat arrogant of us Earthlings to believe we're the only intelligent inhabitants of the entire Cosmos. Our known Universe, most likely we are alone but ... what if...?:thinking:

Interested to know what y'all think.
 
oooh thats a nice dicovery! But i couldn't be bothered if there was other life, good for them, until we discover warp speed not too bothered about it
 
What the use, Milky Way is 100,000ly in diametre, and wiht approx. 1,000 intelligent life, it would take 100 years to get a reply to your email, even then you would need to translate what they were saying, meet up somewhere, it will be 10,000 years of being pen-pals before we get to shake hands with one another.
 
It's hard to imagine that this is the only world in the universe that can sustain life.

It should be a long time until we can confirm this though.

Whether we should confirm this depends on if the beings are more like E.T. and Chewbacca instead of Alien or Predator.

It would be seriously cool if this was THE PLACE for intelligent life though.
 
Why do we assume that all life needs water? Our species do, as do the majority of other life forms on Earth, but it is a nonsense to assume that life on other planets need the same as us to survive.

That may be our 'intelligence' but we may have a very narrow sphere of knowledge and it would be wise to accept that we might be wrong.

As a child, I used to try and imagine the Universe without Earth - it is not a feeling that I can recreate now but for a small person it was really quite awe-inspiring.
 
I meant for people on Earth to live there, not for them to live! And when you think about the universe and the other life forms which could be there, it certinaly is awe-inspiring
 
Jos the Boss said:
I meant for people on Earth to live there, not for them to live! And when you think about the universe and the other life forms which could be there, it certinaly is awe-inspiring
Click to expand

If we are lucky enough to find another planet with its own population and civilisation, I would hope that we might only make the occasional visit and not attempt a permanent stay. It would be a case of 'one planet down another to go'!
 
MCLS said:
It could be debatable that there's intellegent life on this planet LOL
Click to expand

If there is it seems to spend virtually all it's time hiding. We are grossly overcrowded, due to global warming some of our most fertile land is becoming less so and we still think that unlimited breeding is a good thing.
 
in·tel·li·gence​
[in-tel-i-juh
thinsp.png
ns]​
noun​
  1. capacity for learning, reasoning, understanding, and similarforms of mental activity; aptitude in grasping truths, relationships, facts, meanings, etc.
  2. manifestation of a high mental capacity: He writes with intelligence and wit.
  3. the faculty of understanding.
  4. knowledge of an event, circumstance, etc., received orimparted; news; information.
  5. the gathering or distribution of information, especially secret information.
 
If the planet has twice the diameter of earth that means it has something like eight time the mass so does that mean it has eight time the earths gravity?

If so being a rather large chap (not fat just big) that would mean that if I went there I would weigh about 2,240 lbs and so I would squish into a flat puddle.....
 
mephistopheles said:
If the planet has twice the diameter of earth that means it has something like eight time the mass so does that mean it has eight time the earths gravity?

If so being a rather large chap (not fat just big) that would mean that if I went there I would weigh about 2,240 lbs and so I would squish into a flat puddle.....
Click to expand
To calculate the gravitational field strength of a body (in this case the planet) you use the following:

g= G x M / r^2 (all values are approximate)

For example, for Earth, we should all know that the gravitational field strength (g) on Earth is 9.81m/s^2
The Universal Gravitational constant, G, is 6.67x10^-11 Nm^2/kg^2
The mass, M, of Earth is 5.98x10^24kg. (Mass= density x volume - so for this new planet we need to take into account the density and the sheer volume of the planet before we come to conclusions about the mass)
r is the radius of the gravitating body. For Earth, it is roughly 6.38x10^6m.

So: ( 6.67x10^-11 x 5.98x10^24) /((6.38x10^6)^2)
Which equals: 9.799 (3dp) - the error accounts for the rounding in the original numbers. Q.E.D.

Eg.
If the mass is 100, the radius is 64, and the universal gravity constant is 6.67x10^-11 (stays the same)

then: (0.0000000000667*100)/(64*64)

which equals: 0.00000000000162841796875. So the gravitational field strength of this object is 0.00000000000162841796875, much less than 9.81. This shows how great the Earth is.

All of this is simplified of course. I can't get my head around the compiclated bit! And I hope I'm right!
 

Similar threads

Speshal
Extrasolar planets
Replies
8
Views
1K
gribbli
G
McZiderRed
There's Dark Matter in them there hills!
Replies
13
Views
2K
gribbli
G
C
The Tao of Racing
Replies
3
Views
1K
Speshal
Speshal
Back
Top Bottom